Doing Parenting: Critical Approaches to the Study of Mothering and Fathering

Parenting researchers have historically theorized mothering and fathering as gendered, with a focus on mothers as primary parents. Increasingly, scholars recognize the need to understand parenting beyond the binary of heteronormative and gendered parenting. To expand upon theoretical approaches that attend to processes, contextual factors, and power relations, this article critically expands on current debates in parenting scholarship calling for an examination of doing parenting through a critical gendered lens. Employing critical theories, specifically feminist theory, critical studies on men and masculinities, and intersectionality theory, can facilitate family research to move beyond surface-level analyses to interrogate the hidden mechanisms through which gender and other social identities shape the lived experiences of mothers, fathers, and parents across diverse family forms. Future scholarship and implications for incorporating critical theories are presented to examine parenting as a site where gender and multiple systems of oppression and privilege intersect and operate.